paste operation fail due to many cell formats - excel

I have an excel file with many rows, and am trying to copy severl columns from this file to another file. However, the paste operation gives the following error message. I am not clear what does that mean and how to solve it.

Shown below is a quote from microsoft website as it will depend on your excel version
In Microsoft Excel 2003, when you format a cell or a range of cells, you may receive the following error message:
Too many different cell formats.
Excel encountered an error and had to remove some formatting to avoid corrupting the workbook.
In Microsoft Excel 2013, 2010, or 2007, files may produce the following error message:Excel found unreadable content in the file
One solution could be if you only need the values is to copy and paste special as values into the same workbook (diff sheet) and then try to copy into the new workbook. or do this same process but paste without the formatting using paste special.
I would be able to answer more if i new what kind of data was involved or the kind of formatting but give that a go and see if it helps

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Google Sheets download as Excel (XLSX)

I am downloading a Google spreadsheet as Excel (XLSX). Everything works fine EXCEPT any cell with either MAXIFS or MINIFS inside the formula place an # sign after the = in the beginning of the cell, which causes the cell to value as a #NAME. Below is an example:
=#IF(SUM(G72:G551)>0,MAXIFS(F72:F551,G72:G551,">0"),'BOND INPUT'!G44)
Does anyone know how to eliminate the #? The EXCEL file is fed into a system so EXCEL .xlsx file is never actually opened in EXCEL.
I don't think that #NAME? is caused by # as it's valid in Excel 2019 and 365. MAXIFS and MINFS were introduced in 2019.
Firts you have to use a recent Excel version. If the error arises in the system where teh spreadsheet is bein loaded, then it's very likely that is using and old Excel file parser.
Anyway, the # can't be removed from the Google Sheets download as built-in function. You could remove it by editing the downloaded file.
Resources
Excel functions (alphabetical)
Related
# in the beginning of a formula

Adding formulas to excel spreadsheet using python

I am attempting to insert formulas into an excel spreadsheet using python.
Examples of the formulas are:
=VLOOKUP(B3|"Settlement Info"!$B$2:$R$2199|17|FALSE)
=SUMIFS("Payment and Fees"!$I$2:$I$6445|"Payment and Fees"!$B$2:$B$6445|Summary!$B3)
=+E3-F3-G3-I3
=IF(AND(I3>0|I3-N3>=-0.1|I3-N3<=0.1)|"Yes"|"No")
I tried using xlsxwriter and when opening the ss in excel it repairs by removing the "unreadable" content and those cells show as 0. I've seen the comment that the recalculation should be done on the reopening of the sheet when using xlsxwriter but that does not look like is is being done (https://xlsxwriter.readthedocs.io/working_with_formulas.html)
Is there some way to get these formulas into excel without them being removed by excel on opening?
Thanks for any pointers.
I simplified this down to a simple as possible:
When I run the below code and then attempt to open the excel spreadsheet I get an error saying "We found a problem with some content in ...Do you want us to try to recover..If you trust the source select yes"
If I select yes then I get an error " Removed Records: Formula from /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part"
And if I continue the sheet opens and there is a 0 in the field.
from xlsxwriter.workbook import Workbook
workbook = Workbook('test.xlsx')
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet('Summary')
worksheet.write_formula('A2', '=VLOOKUP(B3,"Settlement Info"!$B$2:$R$2199,17,FALSE)')
workbook.close()
If I look at the information at https://xlsxwriter.readthedocs.io/working_with_formulas.html there is the information:
XlsxWriter doesn’t calculate the result of a formula and instead stores the value 0 as the formula result. It then sets a global flag in the XLSX file to say that all formulas and functions should be recalculated when the file is opened.
This is the method recommended in the Excel documentation and in general it works fine with spreadsheet applications. However, applications that don’t have a facility to calculate formulas will only display the 0 results. Examples of such applications are Excel Viewer, PDF Converters, and some mobile device applications.
Which I may not be understanding as I believe that the formula should be left in the sheet.
You can XlsxWriter to create any formula that Excel can handle. However, you need to be careful with the formatting of the formula to make sure that it matches the US version of Excel (which is the default format that formulas are stored in).
So your formulas should probably work as expected if you use a comma instead of a pipe:
=VLOOKUP(B3,"Settlement Info"!$B$2:$R$2199,17,FALSE)
=SUMIFS("Payment and Fees"!$I$2:$I$6445,"Payment and Fees"!$B$2:$B$6445,Summary!$B3)
=IF(AND(I3>0,I3-N3>=-0.1|I3-N3<=0.1),"Yes","No")
This one should work without modification:
=+E3-F3-G3-I3
See this section of the XlsxWriter docs on Working with Formulas.
Update in relation to the updated question:
The formula still has an error. You need to use single quotes instead of double quotes. You also need to add another worksheet for the formula to refer to. Like this:
from xlsxwriter.workbook import Workbook
workbook = Workbook('test.xlsx')
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet('Summary')
worksheet.write_formula('A2', "=VLOOKUP(B3,'Settlement Info'!$B$2:$R$2199,17,FALSE)")
workbook.add_worksheet('Settlement Info')
workbook.close()
There is still an #N/A error in Excel but that is related to not having data in the VLOOKUP range:
Output:

Excel: Unable to break a link to an external file

I have an excel workbook with links to external Excel-Add-In-files. Recently I migrated the files from old Excel 2003 to current Excel versions. The Workbook now is a .xml-file and the Excel-Add-In file is now a .xlam-file.
After changing the references in VBA and saving all files in the new format, I have a link left that still points to the old .xla-File.
I searched all vba codes, all worksheet-formulas and all name-references for any occurence of the old .xla-file without success.
I could neither update the link nor break the link. Any suggestions welcome! Thank You
After a while, I extracted the .xlsm-file-structure to a directory and searched the xml-contents for the old addin-filename. I found conditional formatting that used a formula and was not updated to the new .xlam-file but still referred to the old .xla-file.
So Excel does not update all links to a file: formulas in conditional formatting are not updated.
The solution was to change the formulas of the conditional formatting and the missing reference problem was gone.
So I think, this is more an exotic problem, as conitional formatting with formulas is not very common and a formula containing a function to an external file isn't either.

Not able to convert Excel file to CSV

I have an Excel file with 2 sheets. One with my data with headers and the other is for references. It's basically a template where I am using Sheet 2 for reference values. When I save the file to CSV, it saves all garbage data which I think are due to 2 work sheets and the references between them.
Please find the attached excel sheet and let me know how I can do a proper conversion?
Notes:
I am using Office 2010 Standard
I have tried copying and pasting with "Values" option.
I have tried copying and pasting with "Merge Destination Formatting"
Nothing worked.
I was able to find the solution.
When you copy the selected range of records and paste them to New excel file, just drag the cursor some columns ahead. Remove the newly added columns (Not sure from where they come). Now do a Save As CSV. Thats it.

Array Formulas in Conditional Formatting of Excel XML Spreadsheet files?

Excel usually treats Conditional Formatting formulas as if they are array formulas, except when loading them from an Excel 2002/2003 XML Spreadsheet file.
This is only an issue with the Excel 2002/2003 XML Spreadsheet format... the native Excel format works fine, as does the newer Excel 2007 XML format (xlsx).
After loading the spreadsheet, it is possible to make it work correctly by selecting the formatted range, going to the Conditional Formatting dialog, and clicking OK--but this only fixes the problem for the session.
Test case:
Enter the following into a new sheet:
A B C
1 N N N
2 x x x
3 x x x
Create this conditional format formula on cells A1:C1 (your choice of pretty colors for the format):
=(SUM(($A1:$C1="N")*($A$2:$C$2=A$3))>0)
This is an array formula that activates for A1, B1, and C1 whenever any of them has an "N" and the cell in row 2 below the "N" is equal to the cell in row 3 of the current column.
(This has been simplified from a real-world business spreadsheet. Sorry for the complexity of the test case, I am trying to find an easier test case to present here.)
And it works... you can alter the N's or the x's in any way you want and the formatting works just fine.
Save this as an XML Spreadsheet. Close Excel, and re-open the file. Formatting is now broken. Now, you can only activate conditional formatting if A1 is an "N" and A2 is the same as A3, B3, or C3. The values of B1, B2, C1, and C2 have no effect on the formatting.
Now, select A1:C1 and look at the conditional formatting formula. Exactly the same as before. Hit OK. Conditional formatting starts working again, and will work during the entire session the file is open.
Workarounds considered:
Providing the file in native (BIFF) Excel format. Not an option, these spreadsheets are generated on the fly by a web server and this is only one of dozens of types of workbooks generated dynamically by our system.
Providing the file in the Excel 2007 native XML format (xlsx). Not an option, current user base does not have Office 2007 or the compatibility plug-in.
Asking users to select the range, enter the Conditional Formatting dialog, and hitting ok. Not an option in this case, unsophisticated users.
Asking users to open the XML spreadsheet, save as native XLS, close, and re-open the XLS file. This does not work! Formatting remains broken in the native XLS format if it was loaded broken from an XML file. If (3) above is performed before saving, the XLS file will work properly.
I ended up rewriting the conditional formatting to not use array formulas. So I guess this is "answered" to some degree, but it's still an undocumented, if obscure, bug in Excel 2002/2003's handling of XML files.
I tried to recreate the problem you describe. Here is what I found.
Could consistently recreate the
problem using Excel 2003 on Windows
XP when saving as an XML
spreadsheet.
Could not reproduce the problem
using Excel 2003 on Windows XP when
saving as a standard xls
spreadsheet.
Could not reproduce the problem
using Excel 2007 on Windows Vista
when saving the file in the native
xlsx format.
Could not reproduce the problem
using Excel 2007 on Windows Vista
when saving the file in the Excel
97-2003 xls format.
(Note: All instances of Excel and Windows are current with all Windows updates.)
I also added a simple conditional formatting formula to each test. In every case, it worked as expected after saving the file, closing Excel, and reopening the file.
So the answer seems to be to use the standard Excel 2003 file format when saving the file.
BTW, this is a very odd formatting formula. It is difficult to imagine how you would use it. It must be a very specific & unusual business case. I also have the feeling something is missing in your post. (I'm not accusing you of being dishonest – just wondering if you may have shortened the formula for readability.) If this is not the exact formula you are using, please edit your original post with the complete formula and I will be happy to revisit this issue.
You can find some tutorial videos for self studying the conditional formatting issue over the following pages:
conditional formatting

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